"And you never profited by the transaction?"

"Never by a sixpence. It was done for Dawkes's accommodation, not mine.
He ought to have paid it, you say? My dear, he is a man of straw, and
never had fifteen hundred pounds of his own in his life."

"Does Lord Hartledon know of this? I wonder he has him here."

"I did not mention it at the time; and the thing's past and done with. I
only tell you now to give you an idea of the nature of my embarrassments
and scrapes. Not one in ten has really been incurred for myself: they
only fall upon me. One must buy experience."

Terribly vexed was that sweet face, an almost painful sadness upon the
generally sunny features.

"I will never give you up, Anne," he continued, with emotion. "I told the
doctor so. I would rather give up life. And you know that your love is
mine."

"But my duty is theirs. And if it came to a contest--Oh, Percival! you
know, you know which would have to give place. Papa is so resolute in
right."

"It's a shame that fortune should be so unequally divided!" cried the
young man, resentfully. "Here's Edward with an income of thirty thousand
a year, and I, his own brother, only a year or two younger, can't boast a
fourth part as many hundreds!"

"Oh, Val! your father left you better off than that!"